Tickle the Dragon's Tail
by Anknownymous
Summary: Ja'kal never had many experiences with the dragons of Skyrim, apart from hearing stories of them. Now Serana made him fight them... And he still was very sure he did not like his experiences with them. [Sequel to Khajiit Got Your Tongue. Rated M for our favorite warning: contains NSFW content].
1. Enter the Dragon

_**[SEQUEL TO KHAJIIT GOT YOUR TONGUE**__**]  
Chapter 1: Enter the Dragon  
The warning we love - **NSFW, hope you enjoy!_

* * *

"No."

"Ja'kal-"

"No. I do not want this. Do not give me this. Take it out of Ja'kal, take it back." Ja'kal paced, tail thrashing about in agitation. He turned to Serana with pleading eyes. "Ja'kal wants to eat fish, not dragons. Why does Ja'kal have this? Humans do not want a khajiit - and vampire, and vampire khajiit - in their city, let alone save them. What cruel joke is this?" He took her hands and tugged away the moment he noticed the soldiers smelled like _bloodlust_ and anxiety, a surefire cocktail that warned they did not intend to honor their word about leaving the vampires alone.

And then a shout thundered in the sky.

"**Dov-ah-kiin!**"

Silence reigned down and Ja'kal's tail tucked between his legs as everyone looked up at the sky. He tugged Serana more insistently when the soldiers murmured amongst themselves, something about reporting this to their commanders, and grey beards; was that some sort of code to let their comrades know to strike?

All this time, and Serana seemed to be lost in wonder, enraptured by both curiosity and amusement - particularly whenever she looked at Ja'kal. He failed to see how any of this was amusing. They left the bones and the ashes behind them as they sought refuge in another distant forest, where Ja'kal honed in and attached to the sounds of serenity rather than the scenes of war. It brought home too many painful memories.

Memories that were all on the account of this blasted 'dragon' devouring inside of him.

"Your blood must have been screaming all this time," Serana whispered cryptically, and he looked back at her. She had a serious look, and he learned very quickly that he somewhat disliked serious looks - in general, that was; not Serana's specifically. She let go of his hand and weaved between the trees, her hand gliding along the trunks as she did. Was she marking them the way he did? He took a moment to inspect every one, but saw nothing engraved in the bark.

What was he thinking? She wasn't blind.

"Maybe... Maybe you should be cured of vampirism, Ja'kal."

"What?" Ja'kal's head snapped to her at that, and all he could see was the young and weary woman that was determined to hold the burden of the world on her shoulders again. He hastily rushed up and circled around her, grabbing her wrists as he adamantly shook his head. "No. Ja'kal wishes-"

"It'll silence _Boats. _You don't need another voice screaming at you about domination and destruction."

"Ja'kal can control it."

"Did you, with the dragon?"

That silenced him, and his jaw clamped down on him. His eyes burned and he shut them tightly, his head bowed in shame, holding her for _dear life._ "Serana, afa. I want to be with you."

"You will be," she chuckled, "I'm not going to go anywhere."

"But I will not be able to be with you as often. I will need to sleep where you need to be awake, and what about the castle?"

"It's... Safe to say we're not welcome there anymore _anyways,_ Ja'kal. I really don't think it will change things between us; it'll be just like the beginning. I don't need to sleep when you're awake." Her arms slid along his shoulders and she pressed herself fully to him, kissing his forehead, lingering. "But it's up to you. I can't make you do anything and I don't want you to feel as though I'm forcing you... But..." She sighed, her warm breath seeping into his skin. It was supposed to happen with her kisses on his chest and back, and now they were here because of that blasted dragon. "I'm worried about how this _will_ change you, someday. The Ja'kal I saw out there with the dragon was not the Ja'kal I came to... _Ari._"

Pride still insisted that he could do this but he knew he could not - and it conflicted him, for he often listened to his heart and not the mind. Shame did not seem like it would let up any time soon, and it bore down harshly upon him. Control himself? He could not even control the simplest desires with Serana, acting rashly and roughly even when she had repeatedly asked him to be slow and gentle.

Honest to the gods, he was terrified and not ashamed to admit that. "What does this mean, Serana? Why is Ja'kal a dragon and not a khajiit?"

"You still are," she trailed feather-light kisses down the length of his snout. "You're both. You're a lion with the soul of a dragon." Her breath hitched for some reason, and then her voice _danced_ as she lilted. "And, if you wanted to, you could be a bat - or a gargoyle - too; you're the definition of an identity crisis right now."

"I am more like a house cat right now," he mumbled sullenly. His spirits were lifted when her mouth conformed to his, kissing him with the utmost of tenderness and _reassurance_ that she didn't plan to run away from him. At least, not any time soon. It still did not sit well with him; he was supposed to smother her with love and passion, not more problems to burden her. "I am sorry, Serana."

"For what?" She chuckled. "You keep apologizing when you have nothing to apologize for, Ja'kal."

"I do. You have enough on your mind; a thinker is going to think herself to death. Ja'kal is supposed to be a fierce lion, and now he is nothing more than a sniveling cub."

"Well... I mean... We could change that, since you're already halfway there. And I know how to cheer you up." Her suggestion wasn't missed when she ran her hands across his broad chest, and she peppered it with loving kisses, her gaze glowing brightly as she looked up at him with a sultry smirk. "Dragonborn or not - we defeated a _dragon,_ Ja'kal. That's a feat worth celebrating, don't you think? And mortals witnessed it; witnessed vampires saving them. It's enough to sow the doubt that maybe not _all_ of us are bad or bloodthirsty creatures."

His blood broiled, but he wasn't sure if it was thanks to her words, or her lips. A shuddering breath left him as she deftly untied his trousers, sneaking a hand down his waistband to brush over his _pride. _Instinct guided his fangs to her shoulders and he purred when she teasingly circled her fingers around the tip of his cock.

"No, no, _you_ are still bad. The 'definition' of evil." He smiled when she laughed at that, deep and throaty. It stirred darker things lurking inside of him, and he grabbed her hand to pull it out of his pants, then circled behind her and pushed her to the nearest tree. He held her hips and pressed his pelvis to her rump. "We _conquered_ a dragon," he murmured, and the part he worked so hard to silence had flared to life, burning him on the inside out. He reached around her throat to tear off the clasp of her cloak, tugging on the laces of her leather corset. She helped him shed it, and he rolled her crimson tunic as he glided his tongue up along her spine. He groaned against her skin and nearly sank his fangs into her when she gyrated against his groin.

Serana suddenly straightened and turned around, a seductive smirk playing on her lips as she sashayed around him. "It's your turn, Ja'kal. I do believe I owe you one."

"I did not realize we were counting." He turned to face her, grunting when a little palm on his chest was more than enough to push him against the tree. She pulled at the loose flaps of his trousers until they were down his thighs, and he swore he was going to _explode_ when she knelt down and bit off the string to tear his loin cloth away, never to be tied around him again. He was utterly exposed, watching her lips suckle the tip of his cock as her finger tenderly ran along the bumps of his dull barbs. His head lulled back and smacked the tree trunk, and he sank his fingers in the bark, marking it for an entirely different reason now. "_Serana..._"

All that confidence wavered for a moment when she grasped his girth, experimentally stroking. "Is there a way to do this that pleases you even more?"

"Yes. Stroking inside of _you,_" he hissed without another second wasted, and struggled not to thrust his hips when her low breathy laughter warmed his loins.

"You're relentless." She trailed kisses up from the tip of his cock to his stomach, to his chest, to his neck, lovingly gliding the tips of her fangs over the crook of where his neck met his shoulder. The seductive glow in her eyes - the _hunger_ buried inside of them - enticed him, and he prayed she would allow him another taste of her.

But then he remembered something vital.

_"And I know how to cheer you up."_

"Serana?" He gently grabbed her biceps, angling his head away when she rose on her toes to reach his lips. "You are doing this because you want to as well, yes? You are not doing this just for me?" For a fleeting second, there was hesitance, and it was all he needed. He frowned, smiling sadly. "You do not need to cater to me. You cheered me up before without all of this, just by being here."

"True, but I want to help take your mind off this whole... Dragonborn thing. I can't imagine what it's like - how scary it must be right now. It's like _turning_ all over again."

"It is okay-" he smiled when she frowned at that. "-it will be okay, in time; but what is not okay is making love as a _distraction. _I desire a union of passion with you, both body and mind - not mindless and meaningless lust." He cupped her jaw and leaned down to kiss her, almost regretting his words when he could taste the musk of sex on her tongue. He cast away the thoughts before they had a chance to bloom and _gnarl_ around him with darker desires.

"Well... I mean..." Serana smiled slyly, fingers innocently drumming below his collarbones. She idly traced the scar that ran from his sternum to his shoulder, the scar that had changed his life forever. He wondered how bad the wound had festered, diseased from a draugr. She tethered his gaze back up to her eyes as she flattened her hands on his stomach and leaned up, whispering against his mouth as if she had been passing on a scandalous secret.

And scandalous, it was.

"_We can still change that._"

Ja'kal's tail perked at the insistent suggestion, surprised and caught off guard that she had actually been seeking this out and willingly confronting her fears once more. She curled her fingertips in and gently raked her nails down his abs, the swift pain now far easier to feel without a thick hide in the way. He didn't need another _hint_ when her hand wrapped around his girth, goading him to react, and he tugged on the hem of her tunic until she rose her arms for it to be stripped of her. He was pushed back against the tree and she rose on her toes, her fangs scraping across his broad shoulder.

"Now I know why your blood _burns._ I should have figured something was different, the night I turned you."

"Burns?" Another scrape, and he shuddered. "To drink?"

"Mm-hm. I thought it was just a khajiit thing, but there was something... _Powerful_ that spoke to me, that night." She kissed right on the apple of his throat, and he grabbed the tree trunk as his heart gradually beat it's way up to his mouth, anticipating the pain the moment she'd sink her fangs in him. She suckled a patch between her teeth and then chuckled as she released, sticking out her tongue at him as she slammed down on her heels. "Mouthful of fur. I guess I can't do everything you do."

"This?" He bent down and wrapped his tongue around the front of her throat, the thicker spines gliding across the bruises beginning to form on her neck. He nibbled skin between his teeth, mindful of his fangs, and struggled not to smirk when the hand around his cock squeezed harder as a repressed moan bubbled in her chest. She nodded, chin bumping against his jaw. His hands wandered up her ribs as he paid loving attention to the crook of her nape; all this talk about blood had him curious how she _tasted,_ and his fangs elongated, protruding from his lips. "Can I bite?"

Serana immediately tensed and she withdrew, keeping him away as she gently pushed him by his chest. "I'd... Rather you not. I'm sorry."

"Oh." He retracted his fangs - the back of his mind wondering when he had ever even learned to exert _control_ over them - and smiled warmly to set her worries at ease, when that familiar stench of fear burned the inside of his nose. "That is okay, I was just curious. Can I still kiss your neck?" Her gaze fell, and she released her hold of him as she absentmindedly massaged the side of her neck. He carefully watched, committing the spot to memory, and took his sweet time when she nodded, granting him access as her hand fell. He gently sucked in a patch of unblemished skin and nibbled, drawing a gasp from her.

"This part always feels good," she admitted ever so softly, "I wish I could do it for you."

"You do not need to copy everything Ja'kal does. There are still some things that please khajiit differently than humans."

That seemed to pique her curiosity, and he _cursed_ himself for it when she had pushed him away again, searching his eyes. "Like what?"

"Serana, afa-"

"I want to learn too, Ja'kal. It's not fair if you're the only one learning my body, and how to please me."

"Pleasing you is what pleases me."

The flat look she gave him could make any man _or_ demon sweat. She crossed her arms and took a step away, and the distance honestly sent a painful pang straight to his _loins._ "We're not doing anything until you teach me something about you. What happened to indulging in 'fun and love and passion'? Can I at least know why it's difficult for you?"

Ja'kal felt foolish, _sheepish,_ when he normally never had. He glanced over his shoulder and grabbed his tail, bringing it around his torso. "Because Ja'kal has always been a _giver._ He is not experienced at taking. This one grew up learning how to serve others, as that was to be my role in the kingdom and... It is very strange to be selfish like this. It is strange to be loved - why love a useless cub who was nothing but a burden?"

Serana came back - thank heavens - and ran a finger down the tip of his tail, eliciting a shudder from him. Her gaze snapped up to him in an instant. "I'm not 'experienced' in taking either, as you know, but it feels nice to, doesn't it? When someone makes the effort to make you feel... _Loved,_ as everyone deservedly should at least once in their life; it doesn't matter who or _what_ they are. Do you agree?"

Heat pooled at his face and he nodded, watching her little finger trace up and down his tail. Every little tingle was sent to fuel the blood rushing and pounding behind his cock, and he clenched his teeth as he struggled to stay put, the longer she stroked his sensitive tail. He was supposed to indulge and arouse her, not the other way around. When she stepped forward and trailed all the way to the end of his tail, experimentally touching just above where his tail attached, he purred as bundles of nerves awakened, and his hips jerked forward.

Hums danced in the air, and Serana's smirk flooded his vision. "Duly noted."

Enough was enough. He pulled by her wrists to capture her lips, thrusting his tongue past the sweet crevice of her mouth. His nimble fingers made short work of the buttons of her pants and he slid past her waistband, roughly squeezing her rump until he drew a whimper from her. She held on to his shoulders and caught him off guard when she had jumped and hooked her legs around his waist, a sultry smile spreading when he turned and propped her against the tree with the utmost gentleness that his impatience could manage suffering through.

"Tonsh jer," she chuckled in his tongue, her smirk growing lopsided as she teased. "I know how difficult that was for you."

"_Tsk!_" Ja'kal clicked his tongue off the roof his mouth, grinning when her infection spread to him. He had made a conscious effort to refer to himself the way humans naturally did, and she made a conscious effort to refer to his language the way khajiit naturally did. Could she stop doing these strange things to his heart? He was going to explode if she became any sweeter - and _zaji_ \- to him. "Teasing me has become your favorite hobby, next to reading."

Reading. She was always reading. It gave him an idea for another day.

Serana got her revenge as she squeezed her legs tighter, her ankles hooked over his tail, her pelvis pressed to his. He sucked in a deep breath and purred in her neck as she tilted her hips up and down, the subtle movements taunting him from the smallest friction. He dug his fingers harshly in her rump until he forced a gasp out of her, using the momentum to slip his tongue past her lips once more. He thrust his hips against her, growing rougher and needier and _desperate_ to be inside of her every time he was stopped by wretched fabric once again.

Their hitched breaths and ragged gasps intertwined with the music of the night, as crickets and torch bugs buzzed louder, and colorful leaves fell around them - shook out of the tree every time he pumped against her. He couldn't wait a moment longer and clawed at her waistband, crudely pulling at her pants until they bunched up at her thighs.

"Serana," he murmured with reverence, peering into her eyes as he prayed she was just as ready and done with all this foreplay. The way she chewed her lip, a hint of fear burning in his nostrils, nearly sucked what strength he had left in his knees. "Would you... Not like to?"

"Um... Just be extra gentle, please? You worked me up a lot more last time."

Oh. Right. That was very, very true, with how much time he'd spent with his fingers and his tongue. He looked down as he positioned himself, undeniably eager for how much _tighter_ she'd be, and soon chastised himself for the thought. He dropped his forehead on her shoulder as he sunk just the tip inside, sucking in a long and harsh breath. "When will Ja'kal finally be able to think about going gentle and slow? It is shameful that it is not my first thought and want. Why do I always want to hurt you?"

Serana stiffened a little, then wrapped her arms around him and hugged him tightly as her torso stretched. Her lips brushed the shell of his ear. "I don't believe that you do it out of a want to _hurt_ me, Ja'kal; you're eager, and you're not the only eager one. I wouldn't be doing this right now, otherwise, if I didn't want _you_ just as much." She gently nipped the tip of his ear, sending a pleasurable shudder through him. He could _feel_ her grin then. "Duly noted," she hummed huskily, amusement buried in the undertones of her low voice.

And then she did that strange thing to his heart once again.

"You don't have to be so harsh on yourself. Give _yourself_ permission just like the way you helped me give myself permission too; it's okay to be you. It's okay to _love_ yourself, and it's okay to let someone love you." She pulled back with a warm smile and angled her head until her nose conformed to his snout, her glowing eyes staring straight into his as if she was looking through the window to his soul. For some reason, there were flickers of pain here and there, but they were few and far in between. Another hot blooded rush shot through him, when she shot back his own words at him.

"I hope one day, I will be able to help you see what I see, because I know you do not believe your ears right now."

Ja'kal let go of a breath he hadn't even known he held, and it noisily swooshed out of his lungs. Words. So simple, and yet it was as if hers held some sort of magical power, lifting a burden off his shoulders that he hadn't even known he _carried._ To hear that it was okay, was... Liberating. Validating.

"Serana ari jer, Ja'kal."

That made him soar, and it whisked his whiskers as his mouth set in a swift and toothy grin. "Ja'kal ari jer zath." He glanced down, and then he panicked; he hadn't realized he'd slowly sunk inside of her, and he kicked himself for not realizing sooner _why_ pain flickered across her eyes, earlier. He was about to withdraw until she leaned back to rest against the trunk, and looked down where they were joined. That pain was replaced by a flash of _hunger,_ and she chewed the corner of her lip. He wanted to do that.

So he did.

Ja'kal sucked her bottom lip between teeth and cautiously entered inch by inch until his pubis was pressed to hers. A shaky breath left her. She closed her eyes as her head lulled back, and she clung to his shoulders, nails biting him.

"Love me," she murmured hotly, "love me over and over again until dawn breaks." Something else was going to break until then. "Love me until we can't take it anymore." She unhooked her ankles and pulled him close, reaching under his arm until she grabbed hold of his tail. He purred and nearly sank his fangs in her when she stroked ever so gently, sending a wave of pleasure straight to the tip of his cock. He began an easy rhythm, pacing his thrusts until her eyes opened once again, their gazes locked. She tugged on his tail as she hunched over and bit down on his shoulder, and his hips jerked sporadically as the piercing pain melted way to white hot electricity pulsing beside his eyes.

Pressure steadily built, but not fast enough. His impatience from before added to his impatience and _desperation_ now, needing to reach the peak and step over the edge to fall and finally experience pure bliss_. _He could die a happy man if he just had it _once_ with Serana. Blood trailed down his chest and he groaned when her fangs retracted none too gently, calling out to something sinful inside of him. She hummed as she licked her lips, her chin a beautiful mess, her eyes glowing brighter than ever before; and her whisper broke apart his last restraint, freeing him from his cage.

"You don't have to be gentle anymore, Ja'kal." She pulled on his tail as she wrapped her hand around his nape, burying her fingers in the back of his mane as her heated command slipped past her stained lips. "_Fuck me._"

"Serana," he whimpered pitifully, resting his head back on her shoulder as he thrust harder into her, the sounds echoing in the chilly night air. A thrill surged through him when she had whispered scandalous things in his ear - the complete opposite of what he wanted to do for her, much less ever _expect_ from her. His entire body felt as if it was set on fire with every dirty little secret, and a coil wound taut in the pits of his belly. She arched and moaned his name, syllables broken in between ragged gasps, her breaths forced out of her throat every time he rocked in and out of her.

Bestial instincts took over and he pulled on her rump to meet him on every thrust, and he fell apart when she raked her nails down his back, mixing scorching pain with pure pleasure as she made his muscles dance at her command. "_This,_" she husked her confession, "this is what I thought about, that night you caught me pleasing myself."

Still clothed, roughly taken against a tree, tainted by dragon blood and dirt and who knew what else? Honestly, he imagined she would have fantasized a _sweeter_ coupling.

And it brought no small amount of pride to hear her honesty.

"Ja'kal is relieved," he murmured as he rested his forehead against hers, feeling and absorbing her sweat. "For he was not always innocent in his thoughts about you, too."

A sweat-slick smirk danced upon her lips, and her eyes fluttered shut as another quiet moan graced his ears. He pushed closer until her legs were split wider, his fingers digging into her legs; she was starting to slip through his hands from the sweat that collected on her skin, and he buried his snout in the crook of her neck as he chanted within his mind _not_ to bite her. He grew ever closer and he growled when her nails raked lower, setting the sensitive bundle of nerves on _fire_ when she touched and played around the area where his tail attached.

"_Serana,_" he chanted her name, growing ever more passionate and desperate and _reverent_. He almost marveled at how this lithe little woman didn't have any broken _bones _with how aggressive he treated her. Her body suddenly froze, and her arms snapped up around his shoulders as she muffled her moan in his neck, her hips jerking sporadically. Her inner walls tightened and clung to him, pulsating, kneading, and he groaned at how close he was, desperate to join her. His body refused to, until she came up and kissed him ardently, slipping the command past his lips.

"Come with me, _arina._"

Ja'kal pressed hard against her mouth as the coil broke, and he thrust deep inside of her one last time as pleasure overwhelmed him. He was nearly blinded, if not for the thoughts that screamed in his mind to force her to _submit_ to him and cry out his name because she was in pain, and not pleasure. His blood demanded that he conquer this powerful and mystical creature, to show who was truly stronger, and his fangs grew dangerously close to the pulse fluttering under the base of her jaw.

_'Dominate her. Make her submit!'_

"Shut _up_ Boats," he growled, "can you not tell when you are not wanted? You are most annoying. Ja'kal will annoy you back by making more love if you will not stop being rude."

Silence fell. Serana framed his head and gently pushed him away to look at him, caught in between bewilderment and amusement. Her voice quivered with poorly repressed mirth. "J-Ja'kal... I'm not sure it works that way, and I don't think it cares about being polite." She smirked wickedly, eliciting a groan from him when the magnificent afterglow - finally, he _finally_ came and it did not take an era - was utterly ruined by the over-thinker's question.

"Are you sure it's _Boats,_ and not _Dragons?_"

It drove the point home and solidified his new reality. Ja'kal sighed dejectedly. "_Dragonborn..._ A new chapter of this one's life."

A beat.

"Ja'kal cannot wait to throw this book over the battlements."

Serana laughed.

* * *

_**Translation**_

_Afa - _please

_Ari - _love (verb)

_Tonsh jer - _thank you

_Zaji - _sexy

_Ari jer (zath) - _love you (too)

_Arina - _love (noun)


	2. Unwilling Hero & Willing Villain

_**[SEQUEL TO KHAJIIT GOT YOUR TONGUE**__**]  
Chapter 2: Unwilling Hero & Willing Villain  
Heads up - **heavy use of Ta'agra later, don't forget that the translation is at the bottom!  
_

* * *

Serana laid her head down on Ja'kal's arm as she scooted close to him, honestly amazed at _herself_ and how far she had come and grown. A few weeks ago, this was labeled 'impossible' in her mind. Now she wondered why she stalled this for so long. She twisted over to get a good look at his face and study his expression. "How's your shoulder feeling, Ja'kal?"

Guilt needled her at that. In her haste and want and adrenaline after all those overwhelming things buzzed in her from the battle, she hadn't considered his injuries.

It didn't look like she needed to consider it at all.

"Shoulder?" He lifted his head and looked at each one, circling the arm that was free. He looked back at her with confusion, and she chuckled. "Both feel fine, why do you ask?"

"You looked like you took a pretty bad landing back at the fight." Several of them, now that she thought of it. "I guess you're already healed up now." She turned back and idly chewed her lip as she pressed against him; would her heart stop racing? She had intercourse with him - twice - in all but a few hours, and yet this seemed to be even more daunting to overcome. Maybe _lust_ was just a vampire thing, and _love_ was an instinctual notion to terrify them? She didn't get the sense that Ja'kal was just as uncomfortable though.

When would he _ever_ be, when it came to displaying his affections? It tugged the corner of her mouth in a smirk; but it disappeared soon enough, when his free arm snaked over her waist, his broad fingers splayed out on her stomach as he gently pushed her in, closer to him. His arm tucked neatly when it wrapped her, and his snout wormed between her hair - she was just as anxious to see how much messier it'd gotten - as he kissed the back of her nape.

"You are nervous?" Ja'kal whispered, his knees conforming to the back of her legs. "Why? We are just napping on the ground."

What a horrible reminder at just how dirty their clothes were going to be; but at least he spared her the twigs in her hair, by offering his arm. If only she hadn't indulged his love for _naps_ by agreeing to this - but it wasn't like they were going to be let inside a city and inn any time soon.

"It's just different. I'm not used to... _This,_ with someone." She threw a sly smirk over the shoulder, quipping wryly. "I've been sleeping by myself for a few eras."

Ja'kal hummed and blew a raspberry against her neck, and she laughed at the strange sensation. He'd never done that before. "That can be remedied very easily." Even without seeing him, she could _feel_ his grin. "We will take many naps."

"Ja'kal, _no._ We've fooled around long enough."

"Mm-mm. Not enough."

Right. She really should have known better than to tell Ja'kal that. If it were up to him, he would probably fool around and nap all day for centuries to come.

"We have a lot of work to do, Ja'kal. Remember, fate of the world and all that?"

Ja'kal tightened his hold on her as he scooted ever closer; was he trying to meld them into one body or what? There wasn't any more room. "The world does not care about us or our fate. If it did, it would not have _hurt_ us with half the things it has tormented us with." She opened her mouth to protest, but the words died in her throat when he sighed. "Ja'kal learned back at the kingdom that the only way to enjoy life is to grab hold of your own fate. If he and Dra'kul stayed in Elsweyr, we would have been _slaves_ to our own tribe - and slavery is the absolute worst insult to a khajiit. That was what our lives were determined to be worth, just because we had our challenges. So what if I cannot see as others do? How am I any different than the khajiit who's forms prevented them from being able to talk?"

Serana slid her hand over the one tucked close to her chest, and intertwined her fingers between his knuckles, squeezing. She didn't know what for, or what to say, or what to think. She _ached_ when her mind made a connection, and she related to his feelings of self-worth. In the court, she was seen as little more than the Lord's daughter, her hand vied for by every potential suitor just for a way to covet the throne, rather than to actually love her. That was all she was worth; her own parents made it clear there was no room for anything else, when they had become consumed with the prophecy in their own ways.

"We can't do nothing," she whispered, "I like this world, and Skyrim. That will all be destroyed if my father wins. And the dragon... A dragonborn signals something big is coming, and that might mean there will be more dragons. I mean, from the stories I've read, the coming of the dragonborn isn't something that just happens to a lot of people, Ja'kal. The gods chose _you, _specifically, when you were born."

Wait until Dra'kul heard about this.

"The gods are wafiits then." His sullen grumble was too much, and she laughed. "I am serious." Right. _Him. _Serious. That marked the end of the world right there. "Why else would they choose me? The only reason they would choose me is if they _want_ this world to burn."

...Maybe it really was the end of the world.

Not if she had her say - and she knew exactly what to say.

"Well, maybe they chose you because they know how much you care about me." Serana shimmied in his hold until she turned to face him, smirking _evilly_ up at him. "And since I don't want this world to burn, then you'll fight with everything you've got to make sure that won't happen, right?"

Oh, the look he made was too much. It was as if he was slapped, and his mouth hung uselessly as he gaped at her with pleading eyes. "Serana, _please._"

"Unless, that is... You don't actually _care_ about me..."

"Ja'kal cares about you very, very much, he-"

"That settles it then!" She beamed a bright smile, rolling back away as she scooted as close to him as possible and hugged his hand to her heart. "We'll be saving the world."

"_Serana, afa..._"

Oh this poor, poor man, and his poor, pitiful whimpers. Her cheeks hurt from trying not to grin as evil as she felt now. Ja'kal groaned and buried his snout in her hair, the warmth of his breaths seeping into her scalp. She had to hold her breath to stop the laughter from bubbling out of her throat when he sounded so utterly lifeless, his voice monotone.

"What are we doing tomorrow?"

"I haven't thought that far yet." She hummed, her brain racing with opportunities and ideas. "If the Greybeards are summoning you, then we should answer that call and find out what this whole Dragonborn business means. But... I don't think my father is going to just wait while we go about our own business. He's going to want the scroll back - and he's not going to let the Moth Priest sit in the safety of the Dawnguard fortress."

"The Greybeards? Scroll?" Ja'kal sucked in a sharp breath for some reason, and he squeezed her body against his. "Please explain this in two words or less, or I will fall asleep."

Serana laughed. "That's _impossible._"

"Exactly." Now there was life, and pride, and happiness. Just as how it should be. His tail lazily flopped over her hip, and her cheek ached when she sucked in the flesh to stop herself from smiling any wider. He snuggled impossibly close as a hearty yawn tumbled out of him, making her entire body buzz when it turned into a growl halfway through. He elongated, his neck curled over her head, and she felt his kiss, lingering. "I trust you, Serarina. Lead, and I will follow you wherever you go."

How could he just give his life like that to her, without even wanting answers? He dumped his fate on her shoulders, and to be honest, it terrified her. She certainly wasn't under any illusion that she knew what the right thing to do was. They needed to be in two important places at once.

And she certainly wasn't under any illusion that she knew Ja'kal would actually go to the Greybeards on his _own. _He probably wouldn't even be able to walk ten feet away from her.

Mirth bubbled in her throat and she swallowed it viciously; she seriously needed to babysit a grown man in order to make sure Skyrim would actually _survive._ She should be dubbed a thane just for this alone, or something. The gods dumped it on Ja'kal's shoulders to be a hero - an opportunity most Nords could only _dream_ of having, with all the fickle boons and perceived honor they imagined having as songs would be sung, their names immortalized in legend; and here she was, needing to give the hero a push. Or two. Or three. She knew it wasn't going to be the last push needed.

Serana closed her eyes and shimmied around so that she could face him again, pressing her lips to his chest as she felt his heartbeat flutter. He wrapped her in both his arms, his leg slung over hers, encasing her in a cocoon of warmth and comfort even on cold earth. It made her own heart do dangerous things and her cheeks ached ever more.

"Ja'kal cannot wait to wake up to you like this," he mumbled sleepily, burrowing his mouth in her hair. She was sure it would be a chaotic mess - and for once, she looked _forward_ to it. She was caught off guard and yelped when he suddenly rolled _with_ her, laying on his back, a smile in his voice. "There. This should be more comfortable for you to sleep on."

"Mm-hm, a fur rug always makes for a good pillow and blanket." Serana quipped, and his chuckles rumbled through her body. She tucked her elbows against his sides and kissed his chest one last time, then turned her head, allowing her thoughts to drift.

And she dreamed of warm sands digging between her toes.

**x - x - x**

Ja'kal eagerly awaited their return to Fort Dawnguard. Why? Because he would be able to taunt the bear of a nord just by saying _sweet roll_ or _Ja'kal. _He sniggered to himself more and more as they drew closer, and it was the only time it shattered the worry marring Serana's features. He folded his hands behind his head and his tail playfully curled around the small of her back, provoking a small smile from her. It wasn't enough. He aimed for laughter, a brief reprieve for the heavy burden weighing down on her thoughts.

Bold, perhaps borderline audacious, he lowered his tail and snuck it under her cloak, then conformed to the shape of her rump. She shot him an indignant look, but there was a _glint_ in her eyes, and he grinned as he dared pat her bum with his tail.

"How is it feeling?" He asked with the utmost of concern as he could _manage,_ struggling not to laugh at how she narrowed her eyes. "Is it still bruised?"

"You are getting dangerously close to losing privileges to ever even sleep near me," she huffed with her head held high, the stars reflecting in her eyes. She marched off faster, but not before he caught glimpse of a smirk tugging the corner of her mouth. He cheekily jogged to keep up but circled behind her instead, embracing her, and her laughter lifted his spirits.

Mission accomplished.

"What are you doing?" Her tiny hands hooked on his forearms and his tail snaked around her ribs, exaggerating silly sounds as he kissed the back of her head.

"Cheering you up," he lingered when she stiffened in his arms, and nonchalantly plopped his chin on her shoulder. "You are worried. Why?"

Serana stopped walking, squirming in his hold. "I'm nervous about who we'll find and what we'll find out." She angled in his arms and looked up at him with a strained smile. "And I get the feeling they didn't willingly release you..."

"They did not."

"Wonderful," she chuckled, "so we definitely won't be welcomed with open arms. _Again._"

"Will we ever?"

"...Probably not."

Aromas caught in the wind and tickled Ja'kal's nose; his snout lifted to the air, working furiously to deduce what it was and where it was coming from. It was sweet and addictive, floral and luxuriously sensual. Whatever it was, he _must_ find it and gift it to Serana immediately. She too seemed to be aware of the smell as it grew closer, and she smiled as she reached, playfully squeezing Ja'kal's nose.

"I see that look, Ja'kal. _Focus._ We need to keep moving to the fort."

"We can spare a few minutes, can we not? Ja'kal wishes to find this flower for you. He will put it in your hair, yes?"

A faint rosy hue bloomed at the base of her neck, and she cleared her throat as she framed his jaw, mustering as stern of a look as she could. "_Focus. _I promise we can take the time to search for it afterwards, okay? Let's just get some information and then we'll be on our way."

"What is the difference if we get information now, and ten minutes from now?"

Serana rolled her eyes and groaned exasperatedly, her head lulling back. "_Ja'kal..._" Her hair swept back and exposed the sides of her throat - blemished with love bites, as it deservedly _always_ should - made for an enticing target. He grabbed her hips and leaned down to steal a quick kiss, but then his blood screamed _danger_ and he hissed the second he caught wind of a bowstring snapping, announcing an arrow in flight. It flew between their noses, and Ja'kal just barely caught the tail end of the feathers as he bit down on the shaft.

One skilled archer immediately came to his mind from this _warning_ shot.

"**Dra'kul**," he roared as he spat out the feathers and snapped the arrow shaft between his fingers. Serana looked shocked, and the two twisted towards the willowy figure that emerged from the shadows of trees, with bundles of _flowers_ slathered on to his hide armor with what Ja'kal guessed was likely sap from trees - and responsible for the sweet smell earlier.

Moons _curse_ his brother. May his fur be glued together from the wretched stuff.

Dra'kul still had his bow out, and an unnocked arrow rested between his fingers, ready to draw at a moment's notice. He didn't hide his clear contempt for Serana and had dared insult her with a bristled tail that forcefully flicked and thrashed. The_ nerve._ Ja'kal bared his fangs, elongating menacingly as he hissed. "Show her respect!"

"Dra'kul nase. Dorroh sallidadoh." His lip curled in disgust, but his eyes - reflecting in the dark - held sorrow whenever they had flickered from Serana to Ja'kal. "Ja'kal, it is Dra'kul. Your brother. You know and recognize this khajiit, no?"

"I recognize a _threat._ Put your weapon away, brother, or you will see what I do to the wafiits who dare threaten her."

"Ja'kal," Serana murmured softly, tugging on his wrist. "It's okay."

"It is not okay." Ja'kal narrowed his eyes when his brother made no move to move. "It does not matter who they are. I will not tolerate anyone who risks Serana's safety."

"**I**?" Dra'kul shook his head with a mournful sigh. "She who is wovaroh vaba hata var dar ahzirr draqa. Vaba datoh shesko jaji roj var darka jer, Ja'kal?"

"Oku kaver vaba vakozay fa dal? I am alive, you fool! I stand before you, breathing and heart beating; nothing has changed. The only one who has changed is you, and what goes on in your mind when you still see the same Ja'kal. You are the one who does not know and recognize this khajiit." The longer Dra'kul stood with eyes full of pity and grief, the more frustrated Ja'kal became and he had half a mind to shake this insanity out of his brother. So he tried. He approached, and instead was met with an arrow aimed at him. He snarled viciously, masking his own _agony _over his brother's betrayal - now the second time. "See? You have just proven my point."

"Dra'kul trusts Ja'kal, not the _thing_ that wears Ja'kal's face."

"Enough, this is going nowhere!" Serana snapped, stomping in between the two of them. Ja'kal shot a heated look until his brother reluctantly lowered and eased the arrow off the bowstring. "We can argue all day, but we don't have the luxury anymore; not when daylight is threatened. Set your differences aside, and set time aside to talk to each other after you _both_ have calmed down." She grabbed Ja'kal's wrist and tugged him harshly as she marched for the fort; when he had made the mistake of resisting - even the subtlest bit - she yanked on him and shot a stern look over her shoulder. "No. Neither of you are in the right frame of mind to talk to each other right now; and if you cannot even bear to hear him out, then you will not hear what he has to say."

"What he has to say? _Tsk!_" Ja'kal clicked his tongue off the roof of his mouth, the deeper undertones of his voice coming out in a growl. "Nothing important; he is full of anger."

"And you? Are you listening to yourself right now?"

"I have reason to be angry!"

"So does he!" Serana released him as she whirled around, syllables cracking and fading between words. "I understand you're upset and frustrated, and after everything's happened so far, you have every right to be; but so does he, Ja'kal... He hasn't had the time that you had to get to know me. Yes, it hurts to hear what he's saying... But we can't deny that the vampire race as a whole haven't sanctioned this fear and anger. If nothing else, then just hear me out and think about this: if you had never met me in the crypt, and your only experience with vampires were the ones you fought, then what would you think if your brother was turned by one?"

Ja'kal crossed his arms, stubbornly looking off to the side at trees that had suddenly become _very_ interesting.

"It's up to us to change how people think about vampires, Ja'kal. Give your brother time, just like how you and I had time."

"Not _that_ much time," he mumbled, sheepishly rubbing his nape before he folded his arms and tucked his hands against his ribs again. He hoped he wasn't about to eat his tail for his selfishness, or overstepping with a claim he did not truly own. "Ja'kal enjoys sharing, but he will not share you; not even with pets."

"W-what...?" Mirth bubbled in her voice, and it was the sound of _hope_ itself. He mustered the courage to look at her, though his tail snuck close and flattened against the back of his leg, still fearful for the furious outburst that might come once his claim was _processed._

Then Serana laughed.

"No! By the Void, no. _Please _no." She laid her palm against his chest, a smirk growing upon her lips as she _pushed_ him while she walked. "I don't think anyone would be able to handle you two stubborn men." The moment his back hit a tree, she rose on her toes and kissed him, swallowing his yelp of surprise. "But just so we're clear, Ja'kal..." She bit and suckled his bottom lip, pulling a husky groan out of him. Her eyes glowed as bright as the moon as she whispered her promise, protected by the _darkness_ both inside and outside of them.

"I will never share you, either."

A beat.

"Not even with _dragons._"

"Nooo..." Ja'kal whined. "You were doing so good. Why did you have to remind Ja'kal of this most heartless thing?"

Serana laughed - and right then and there, he was convinced it was the cackle of a villain. She pulled off the evil aspect of vampirism like a _natural._

**x - x - x**

Ja'kal paced about in the room, his tail flicking nervously. He must be patient, he told himself - and Serana. How had they not yet learned that that phrase was missing in his vocabulary? Patient must have been the last word he had ever learned in Tamrielic; and boat. It was a heart wrenching decision to figure out which truly came last. He helped himself to the dining table and it loudly scraped in the room as he pulled it towards the fireplace, then _tipped_ it on it's side so that it would block the light, eliminating his need for a blindfold as he watched the entrance for when she would make her entrance. The table slammed on the ground and echoed, making him grimace at the volume.

There was no way nobody heard that, keen hearing or no.

"Hurry up, Serana," he grumbled, hoping she had somehow picked him up herself. Why did she insist on doing this alone? And why had Dra'kul _followed_ her? Ja'kal didn't trust his brother not to offend or threaten Serana. Was this punishment? Was this an effort to calm him down before attempting to speak with the brother-turned-bigot?

_"...if you had never met me in the crypt, and your only experience with vampires were the ones you fought, then what would you think if your brother was turned by one?"_

Ja'kal crossed his arms and bit his thumb hard enough to draw blood. The pain was preferable to thinking. Considering. Realizing. _Regretting._ His hasty words must have hurt, and yet they had come so easily to him; even when it should have been far easier to protect his brother from such pain.

What was he becoming? Was this truly the work of _Boats_ and _Dragons_ eating away at him inside?

No. He had every right to protect Serana - her safety and her honor. Dra'kul threatened that. He continued to be a bigot and see Ja'kal the vampire, and not Ja'kal the brother; how dare he be hypocritical and question Ja'kal when Dra'kul was the one who had let harm come to him and Serana? Dra'kul deserved what he got!

_"Are you listening to yourself right now?"_

Who was 'yourself' anymore? His blood hungered for vicious things, and felt challenged at every turn, demanding he conquer. He was not like that, but he _used_ to be like that. So was he still not Ja'kal? This was making his head hurt and his brain paced in circles as much as his feet in this barren room. He wanted yesterday back, or the day before, or even the week before. He wanted to turn back time where his biggest problem was trying to catch fish, or unable to taste Serana's skin, blocked by her clothes.

Now he wasn't just Ja'kal the blind slave, or Ja'kal the khajiit, or Ja'kal the vampire. He was Ja'kal the _dragonborn._

_"You're a lion with the soul of a dragon. And, if you wanted to, you could be a bat - or a gargoyle - too; you're the definition of an identity crisis right now."_

He still didn't know how all of this worked. Maybe it wasn't meant to. Maybe the balance inside of him was disrupted by becoming a vampire - for he had not remembered having this many vicious thoughts even when he was an angry cub. If only he could gain clarity...

"Ja'kal?" Serana's soft voice immediately broke his reverie and his head snapped up, approaching her with swift eagerness. He stopped when she shook her head with a sad smile. Dra'kul entered the room shortly afterwards, and a robed figure followed behind. Something wasn't right. Something was very, _very,_ wrong with all of this. The robed figure pulled his hood back - a dark skinned human that bore the tell-tale features of a Redguard.

"Who is this?" Ja'kal questioned, his gaze flickering often to Serana as she silently took to leaning against the far wall. Why couldn't she meet his eyes?

"You may call me Falion," the Reguard answered resolutely, bringing a hand over his chest as he bowed his head in respect. "The Dawnguard have acquired my services to bring life back to your dead body, vampire." He dug in a satchel and retrieved stones of some sort, placing them around the room until it had drawn a large circle in the center. "Are you ready to begin with the ritual?"

"Ritual?" Ja'kal froze, and he glanced at Serana for answers. She still didn't look at him.

_"Maybe... Maybe you should be cured of vampirism, Ja'kal."_

Dra'kul approached, but stopped a safe distance away when he was glared at. He sighed and took out a stone out of his pocket - a soul gem. "Please listen to Dra'kul, brother. You can feel the _warmth of the sands_ once again - though you may not feel as though you want to, because you are being manipulated by the disease coursing your dead veins. Dra'kul knows this is what Ja'kal would truly want, though."

_"But it's up to you. I can't make you do anything and I don't want you to feel as though I am forcing you."_

"What Ja'kal would want...?" He echoed, reaching towards the glimmering soul gem; and then his hand retracted as if he was bit, and he may as well have. The faint aura that emanated from the gem had clawed and screamed for _freedom,_ just like how Ja'kal once had. He absentmindedly rubbed his wrists when he could feel the ghost of shackles chafing them. "What have you done, Dra'kul?" He uttered, stepping back in horror as he gestured to the soul gem - the _black_ gem. "Have you lost your mind? Who have you murdered, who have you enslaved?!"

"Murder? Slavery?" Dra'kul hissed as he lifted the gem. "This is but a wretched bandit who's life was forfeit the moment he decided to _be_ a bandit! Dra'kul did Skyrim and _Ja'kal_ a favor by killing him. His life is worth more in death, and his death will bring life back to your bones. It will free you from _your_ enslavement! You may think Dra'kul is - apparently - a villain for getting rid of one despicable bandit, ignoring what crimes that human likely committed every day; but if a sacrifice is called for, then Dra'kul is willing to make that sacrifice. That is the price this one is willing to pay, so you will no longer pay it for every moon you are cursed to be the villain yourself."

"It is not a price** I** am willing to pay. I will play no part of this," Ja'kal seethed, knocking the gem out of his brother's hand. "You are so consumed by your hatred that you cannot even think for one moment whether or not I would ever want this. You always do this. You always force things on me. You never ask me - you just assume what I want, because it is what _you_ would want. We are of the same litter, Dra'kul, but we are not the same khajiit."

Clarity. He wanted clarity, and he achieved it, but he did not want to achieve it in _thi__s _manner. Now he knew exactly who he was, though.

_"It's up to us to change how people think about vampires, Ja'kal."_

"My desire to breathe as I am is not of maliciousness, but of acceptance. Just yesterday, Serana and I _saved_ soldiers and defeated a dragon. Trained soldiers, brother, and many of them. If not for the strength in my veins and Serana's aid, I would have perished just as they had, rotting in an unmarked grave - or in the bowels of the dragon. This power is not a curse, but a blessing. Vampirism has granted me-"

"_Stop._" Dra'kul interjected feebly, turning around with his tail drooping between his legs. "Dra'kul cannot listen to this anymore. This one had hoped you would have been able to protect yourself from it's lies, when you have always been the one that shattered the illusions; but this disease has consumed your mind. There is no Ja'kal left to save. You are not this one's brother, and you are no longer welcome in the Dawnguard. You are an asset like your _master. _A pity; we escaped our fate in Elsweyr only for you to willingly choose that fate here. The Mane was right. A slave is all you will ever be."

With that, he slithered out of the room. Falion awkwardly collected the stones and bid a quiet farewell as he chased after Dra'kul, and Ja'kal was left to stand without _legs_ as a dagger twisted in his heart. His eyes burned and a lump choked him at his throat. He squeezed his eyes shut as tightly as possibly as his head bowed, and a breath later, Serana's arms curled around him. Over time he had grown far more bulkier than her, and now this lithe woman was his foundation, the reason he had not toppled over with every gale that tried to rip him out of his roots.

"Ja'kal does not want to be here anymore. This _hurts._"

"I know," she whispered, her voice thick with emotion, cracking under the weight of it. She held on to him so tightly that his ribs _ached_ from the force, and she buried her face in his chest; his short fur grew damp, and it hurt to _feel_ her tears. "I know... And I'm sorry..." There she went again, apologizing for nothing. She was the one that was brave enough to broach the topic so long ago, and if not for the decision he made that day, he would have taken the coward's way out today.

_"I'm sorry... I never asked..."  
__"Asked what?"  
__"If... Hypothetically... There was a way to cure vampirism... Would you?"_

"It is not your fault, Serarina. It never was."

"I... _Know, _sort of, I think, but... I just wish I could have helped, or wish I was brave enough to warn you about what he intended to do. But..." She fought as she groped for words, her body sagging with a dejected sigh. "I don't know. I was afraid of... _I don't know._" She struggled too, watching and waiting at the mercy of fate she could not control; but it was thanks to her patience, and her granting him the freedom to make his own decisions and his own mistakes that had helped him. Only time would tell if this decision was just another mistake - but at least he was sure of one thing that numbered in the list of what he now also was.

...Did this decision even really matter, in the end?

_"I do not care what or who we are. I only care about this... I want our hearts to beat hard and fast together, for each other."_

Ja'kal tilted his head and buried his mouth in her hair, taking in a slow and deep breath as he drank her scent. "You did the right thing, Serana." He caught a bitter scoff muffled in his chest, and smiled - however strained, burdened by the sorrow and the _grave_ Dra'kul dug for his brother in his mind; but that was a grave Ja'kal had already come to terms with when he had awoken to his wounds being tended to by Serana, and not Dra'kul. "You opened my mind. You showed me the choices, and you let me decide for myself. No one chose for me. No tribe assigned it to me. No god picked me."

_"'Undead', alive, does it matter?"_

He pulled away and cupped her jaw, forcing her to look up even when she resisted a little, her eyes squeezed shut... Though if she truly didn't want this, she had the strength to push him away; and she displayed a different kind of strength all together - that inspired him just the same - as she pulled him closer instead. Her lips were captured in a tender kiss full of gratitude, and somehow, _somehow,_ she made him fall for her even _more._ He broke the kiss and waited until she opened her eyes. When those mournful glowing orbs fluttered back into his world, he consciously elongated his fangs as he beamed a proud toothy grin.

"Ja'kal would much rather choose to be the unwilling hero than the willing villain."

* * *

_**Translation**_

_Wafiit - _idiot

_Afa - _please

_Arina - _love (noun)

[Dra'kul]: _Nase - _will not [be]

[Dra]: _Dorroh sallidadoh -_ not for [the] not-dead (aka undead)

[Dra]: _Wovaroh - _not alive

[Dra]:_ Vaba hata var dar ahzirr draqa -_ is even killing our ways

[Dra]:_ Vaba datoh shesko jaji roj var darka jer, Ja'kal? -_ is it not enough that she killed you, Ja'kal?

[Ja'kal]:_ Oku kaver vaba vakozay fa dal? -_ look who is the blind one now?


	3. A Single Candle

_**[SEQUEL TO KHAJIIT GOT YOUR TONGUE**__**]  
Chapter 3: A Single Candle**_

* * *

Water splashed and pitter pattered as Ja'kal played - sorry, _'washed'_ \- in the pond. It tugged Serana's lips in a smile every time she heard him frolic about, looking up from her book to indulge herself as he swam about to stay cool in this sticky heat. His tail was the only thing seen for the most part, and she chuckled every time he seemed to somersault underwater.

It was a relief to see that; despite everything that happened this past week, it had not overly dampened his spirits.

"Serana, are you not suffering?" Ja'kal's question brought her eyes up from her book again, arching her brow as she shook her head in confusion. He pointed at her, not that that was clarifying anything itself either. She looked down at herself and drew no conclusion. "Your clothes," he started, and she rolled her eyes with a chuckle.

"You're relentless."

"Hm? Oh. No, Ja'kal was not talking about disrobing to feast this one's eyes." A beat. "I would not object if you did, though."

"Of course you wouldn't," she smirked, then adjusted where the pin of her cloak rested as she watched hope flare to life in his eyes. She shrugged. "I'm fine. I'm keeping cool with magic." It was insufferably hard to keep her mirth buried in her chest when his entire body sagged dejectedly, and in a fit of woeful drama, he flopped back on the pond with his arms spread out wide. The crash sent water spraying up, and he was soon back to swimming about to _'wash'_ again.

For the umpteenth time that evening, Serana returned to absorb as much information as she could from the books she acquired during a quick visit to Riften. She combed through every legend and detail about the Dragonborn and the Greybeards, both out of curiosity, and _necessity; _she knew Ja'kal wasn't going to be privy to learning about this. That much made itself evident when she announced they would journey to the Greybeards, and he had surprisingly - _suspiciously _\- taken a sudden interest in the affairs regarding the Moth Priest.

At least that was one thing that worked out in her favor. If father needed two more scrolls to decipher the prophecy - and that was _if_ he had ever gotten his hands on the Moth Priest - then there was time yet, if no such scroll, nor mother, had been turned up in the time Serana had been stowed away.

Ideas raced as she wondered where her mother could have been hiding, and if Serana was even prepared to see her, and-

...Why were there pebbles of pollen dropping on her book?

Serana carefully brushed it away before it smeared all over her pages, and then hastily shut the book to protect it when raindrops fell on it - and her - too. A look up proved it wasn't rain, though. Laughter tumbled out before she could think to stop it, met with an upside down grin as a damp khajiit hung by his tail on a tree branch, a flower in his hand.

"What are you doing, Ja'kal?"

"I just wanted to see what you were reading," he confessed with an _un_remorseful grin, then waved the flower in his hand. "And to sneak this in your hair."

"You could have just _asked__,_ you know."

"Why?"

"Um... So it'd be easier, I guess."

"This is more fun." Ja'kal nonchalantly reached and tucked the flower stalk just above Serana's ear, however crooked, and disappeared as he climbed back up on the tree. Heat collected at her cheeks over the positively overbearingly sweet - and bizarre - notion; she never thought herself to be some sort of dainty girl, wearing flower crowns. He continuously challenged what she had thought of herself everyday though. He jumped and nimbly landed in front of her, squatting down and bouncing on the balls of his feet as he grinned. "Khajiit like to sneak. Maneuvers silken and sleek."

Oh, hell. Not this again.

"The darkest corners we seek in the _niiiiight,_" he purred as he crawled past her, his tail lazily sashaying around her waist. She chuckled when he came up behind her and embraced her, sopping wet, though she shivered for an entirely unrelated reason; she couldn't have possibly known why, of course not. It didn't seem to have anything to do with the fangs that teasingly scraped under the curve of her jaw.

Deft hands made short work of her cloak and corset, the book filched from her fingers and dropped aside. She groaned and reached over her shoulder to hook her arm around his neck, wrist twisting so that her fingers buried in the back of his drenched mane. She never thought herself to be some sort of woman who constantly indulged in _'passion'_, but he continuously challenged that everyday, too. The pits of her belly stirred and a flame ignited, fueled by every time he suckled on her neck between his teeth as his hands wandered.

"You're insatiable," she husked as her head lulled back to rest on his shoulder, reveling in his attention; but if he could afford to horse around like this, then he could afford to keep moving. The world wasn't going to wait for them. Even if it did, it'd be waiting for another century, with how often Ja'kal... _Distracted_ her. "If you feel better now, then we have to keep going."

"_Serana,_" he whimpered pitifully, "do not be so cruel to me."

At that, she laughed. She gently pushed him away and twisted to face him, kissing his forehead. She rested her palm on his chest, smirking when that hope flared in his eyes again; it was getting easier and easier to see things in them, and she swore she caught a faint pupil in the center. She summoned magicka to her fingertips, chilling them rapidly enough to elicit a violent shudder from him. His chest was dry within a second.

"Please?"

"Nope." She ran her hand all along his side until every little drop of water sank into his skin, and he sighed.

"What is the point of saving the world if we do not enjoy our time in it?"

"We will after we save _time_ to actually enjoy the world," she countered coolly, though her smirk fell when his spirits slumped. It flared hot-blooded _annoyance_ in her, actually, and she frowned. "For all that talk before, you're surprisingly content to enjoy anything but talking with me." She snapped up into standing and began to pack her books in her satchel, marching to the pond to wash her hot face as her blood boiled. Somewhere in the back of her mind, she wondered why she was this worked up so suddenly. His _restlessness_ was never news to her; but the emotion just kept pouring. "Just because I have given you permission to touch me once, or twice, does not mean it automatically belongs to you, ready for whenever you please. Enjoying life doesn't always mean 'fun and love and passion', you know."

"I do enjoy talking with you," he started, and she rolled her eyes at that. Then she ate her words - some of them, anyways. "But I do not know what to talk about when priests and dragons are all you want to talk about, even if they are worrying you. I wish to strip those burdens away from you. I do not know how to turn your mind off, except to turn your body on; to love you in the way you have always deserved to be loved."

Silence fell between them, and she didn't know what to say. She found it increasingly hard to stop the thoughts that screamed how Ja'kal only wanted her for her body and an easy ticket to pleasure; if this was the product of her own _voice,_ it was mightily convincing in how it implied it was the product of her own feelings. She raked her hand through her hair and a lump lodged in her throat when her fingers brushed against the flower. She sighed and washed her face again, then left for the forest trail, unable to look at him.

"Let's just go. Ivarstead shouldn't be much farther." Her skin crawled and her nerves _frayed _when the flower fell out of her hair.

But she never stopped to pick it up.

**x - x - x**

Within the blink of an eye, Ja'kal saw a different woman in place of Serana - literally. He was keenly attuned to the smell of _deception_ as she wrapped herself in an illusion to hide amongst the humans going about their lives in this humble village; the glowing orbs once as bright as the moon were now replaced by blue eyes as sharp and clear as ice. He followed obediently as he looked down at the flower in his hand, twirling it by it's stalk. His heart grew weary when a couple more petals fell off.

"Stay here," she announced, "I'm going to the inn to get some information about the Greybeards. The locals will know of the mountain's perils best... Hopefully. I'll be back soon."

"Okay." Ja'kal mumbled, uncertain if his voice would be wanted or not. She seemed to linger, tensing, but still never looked at him as she left for the inn. After all that progress, all they shared - and still she was most difficult to get her to open up about her emotions. If she did not desire to be touched, then it would pose no issue to wait until the day she would desire it; Ja'kal just couldn't help but feel blindsided by her anger, when she never expressed displeasure about pleasure in the first place.

Waiting was never his strong suit, and in time, he found himself wandering to the stream. He sat on the edge and took off his boots to submerge his feet in the water, reflecting as he held out the flower and watched the wind carry away the rest of the petals. Just a small stress, a brush from forces he couldn't control, and the beauty had been ripped away.

Someone caught his eye from across the stream and he looked up. A dirty human in tattered rags knelt and scooped water in his hands, and his body odor was most unpleasant. Ja'kal's fangs itched, as if something about the human was _calling_ to him; his stomach growled, reminding him how he hadn't had fish in a while.

For some reason, the human was talking, but Ja'kal saw no one. His spirits slumped when the man looked to the side and beamed a grin at _air._ "What do you think, Reyda?" He seemed to procure some questionable scrap of food from one of his pockets, stuffing it in his mouth. The deafening pause lingered, and then the human laughed, snorting in between. "Yeah! Narfi thinks so too!"

What a pitiful existence.

Ja'kal could only assume who this 'Reyda' was, and his mind wouldn't stop building connections between him and Serana. It was a harrowing realization to see _himself_ in the scrappy human. He idly grabbed and ripped up blades of grass, tossing it into the stream for no reason apparent to him. He drew up a leg and rested his chin on his knee, trying to drift as he basked in the hot sun, listening to the human talk and laugh to himself. At least he still remembered how to laugh. Did the source of his happiness matter, whether it was real or imagined? Who was Ja'kal to judge? The human looked over in his direction, and suddenly took off to hide in the broken down house. Why?

"Ja'kal?" Serana's soft voice sent a ripple through his body that made his muscles tense, and he reluctantly looked over his shoulder with an apologetic smile.

"I am sorry for not staying put."

Serana stared, and he had a hard time adjusting to her 'human' eyes. He let out a breath he hadn't even known he held when she smiled, however small. "It's fine. I didn't mean for it as an order, just... Didn't want to lose you, in case if you got carried away with something and wandered somewhere." She walked down the hill and took a seat beside him; he didn't know how to interpret this, whether it was something good or something to be afraid of. He stole many glances, and many of them didn't go unnoticed. She sighed and leaned over to the side as she rested her head on his shoulder, closing her eyes. "I'm sorry for snapping at you, earlier. I... Should have handled that better."

Handled that better? Did that mean she still _felt_ the same, but hadn't filtered it? That was not an improvement; he would rather receive raw and honest emotion, and not prettied up with a bow tied on it. He was scared to ask, though. Scared to fail and disappoint.

"It's just..." Serana chewed her lip, then shrugged as she hugged her knees to her chest. "Ever since we first kissed, you've been very... _Touchy._ I'm still not used to it, but the more you touch, the more _often_ you want to touch. I want there to be more between us than just touch, Ja'kal; just like how when we first started traveling together. I want us to keep learning about each other."

"Are we not?" He blurted, then winced at how that must have sounded, and hadn't at all saved himself as the words continued to tumble out. "We are just learning a different part of ourselves - a physical part, but our spirit is tied with it, as is nature." He began to sweat in his own fur when her eyes snapped open and peered up at him, the ice-blue eyes glowing with specks of her _natural_ orange dotting the irises. "And I may be touching your physical form, yes, but I hope I am also touching your _spiritual_ aspect when I do."

Serana's lips thinned. He didn't know what to make of this expression, especially when a burst of low and breathy sniggers slipped past her lips. She shook her head. "Spiritual, huh? I guess that's a khajiit thing."

There was his roundabout answer, and it saddened him greatly to hear it. He bowed his head in shame and begun to pluck at the grass again, watching it wash away in the stream. He failed. In his haste and impatience to help her feel loved, to feel good, he had overlooked and neglected to make her _soul_ feel just as loved as her body.

Little fingers brushed over his hand and intertwined between his knuckles. She leaned more heavily against him. "I'm sorry, Ja'kal. I hope you don't feel like anything is your fault." There she went, thinking about others and placing their needs above her own. Emotions were meant to be felt, not to be apologized for. If anything it was his fault for sowing the seeds to these emotions.

"I think... I think this is just something I have to work through, and I guess... Maybe..." Serana sighed in defeat and struggled as she groped for words, just as he struggled to allow her to get it all out rather than rush to eradicate her doubts. "It's hard to admit it, but I'm in over my head." They tumbled out in one short breath, and she inhaled sharply before it all fell out of her, as if a dam broke. "There's so much going on right now, and there aren't any clear answers. It's a little scary to be in charge because I don't know if we're doing the right thing - no, I don't know if **I'm** doing the right thing; and I don't know if it's even right for me to be happy right now."

"It is," he urged resolutely. "Everyone deserves the right to be happy no matter when. Sometimes it is love that is needed during the hard times, to help remind us that there is light even in darkness." Ja'kal mused on the rest of her words as he looked at her; her eyes were closed again, and her brow was knit together in weary worry. She was trying to shoulder the burden of the world again. He was wrong to think to simply take the burden off of her shoulder with brief reprieves, rather than _sharing_ that burden. He kissed her temple without thinking, and she tensed.

Was he not allowed _any_ form of contact, anymore? Where did these concerns come from? Perhaps they were brewing for a long time, and he had been too absorbed in his desires to notice the warning signs; or maybe he just needed to develop the habit of _asking_ instead of _avoiding._ He craned his neck to look as high up the mountain as he could, holding a hand above his eyes to shield them from the sun - and then it struck him: it was broad daylight, and his eyes did not burn the way that they used to. The world was still tinged with a light and bright blue hue, but he could _see._

It wasn't the time to be excited.

"You are doing the right thing," he continued, squeezing the fingers between his knuckles. "You have been so kind and patient, pushing me ever gently, like the wind. It is Ja'kal who must stop being a cowardly cub and learn from the example set by the lioness. I promise I will work harder to not just lift the burden off your shoulders, but to _share_ it as well. Ja'kal will take initiative with these... What were they called? Greying beards, yes?" In the corner of her eyes, he saw her lift her head and look at him. He twisted and beamed a warm smile. This revelation was uplifting, but it was still terrifying, and time was needed to change ways engraved in stone.

At least, that was the excuse he was going to go with for what he was about to do.

"But first..." He flopped back on the hill and folded his hands behind his head. "A nap!"

"Oh, come on!" Serana groaned. "You were doing _so_ good..."

Ja'kal closed his eyes and grinned, straightening his legs. He could still feel her eyes all over him, and his own doubts were set at ease when he was kissed on the nose.

"Never change, Ja'kal."

"Oh? So you prefer more cat naps and lazy days, yes?"

Serana didn't miss a beat. "Change, Ja'kal. Change_ right now._"

He laughed.

**x - x - x**

"Ja'kal's throat hurts. Must this one shout to _Shout?_ It seems excessive, yes? I do not want to make people deaf or to think I am angry; but I am thirsty."

Serana couldn't believe what she was hearing, and she mouthed a silent apology when one of the Greybeards looked at her. They were the definition of calm and patience, dealing with this khajiit's questions and curiosities and reluctance and _blasphemy,_ like now. She pinched the bridge of her nose and muttered under her breath, well aware only his keen hearing would be able to pick it up. "Please take their lesson seriously, Ja'kal, or they're going to kick us out. This is a privilege, not a birthright."

At least he wasn't sleeping through their lesson. That was one miracle in this mess.

One of the Greybeards actually entertained one of the khajiit's requests and quietly brought forth a jug of water, to which Ja'kal immediately chugged as if his life depended on it. The waters of life... Serana absentmindedly wondered if the wizened mages were aware they were _vampires -_ they must have, with their power, and if the jug of water was a deliberate interpretation for what Ja'kal could have otherwise suggested he was thirsty for blood; the essence of life.

A pang gripped her stomach at that thought. It had been a while since she has fed, and her focus nearly wavered when her senses tuned in to the smells of powerful and _enticing_ blood before her. Restraint. Discipline. She would not feed on innocents. She needed to hunt after this lesson and to feast on the first rabbit that crossed her path. It marveled her how Ja'kal did not seem to be suffering the effects of hunger, despite being a fresher vampire. Perhaps the blood of a dragonborn didn't just amplify some of vampirism's effects, but negated them too. She would have assumed a dragon would be just as _gluttonous_ as a vampire though. Perhaps other needs were louder?

Or perhaps he was gluttonous in a more _sinful_ way.

That brought color to her cheeks, and guilt to her mind. Serana lashed out at him when she could have maturely expressed her discomfort over the... _Frequency..._ Of his desire to couple with her. It shamed her to have lost control the way she had over something that seemed to be genuinely revered by the khajiit. Spirituality, though? That was a notion that would definitely take some time to get used to. She'd always thought of spirituality as something pertaining to prayers and offerings to either Aedra or Daedra.

Offerings... Daedra...

Two words, and her mind was brought to a dark place. She _shivered._ She could still feel the repulsive tongue dragging up her cheek, the sadistic demon that cackled and mocked her as it had it's way with her. Like a plate of food, she was offered for the ritual - both body and soul claimed viciously.

"Serana?" Ja'kal's worried voice echoed in the distance, and she thought she felt she was shaken somewhere. Her skin crawled again. Her nerves _frayed._ She nearly snapped and ripped away when she felt lips on hers. She stood - when had she risen? - and stared at the khajiit who blinked in surprise, and then his brow furrowed with an uncharacteristic seriousness. He twisted to the Greybeards as he took her hand and pulled her to the exit. "Thank you for being patient and taking time to teach this one your way with that voice. We are leaving now - Ja'kal will return with the horn."

"The Way of the Voice," one of the Greybeards corrected respectfully. "Do not forget it. Remember to control your power, and do not let power control you. We eagerly await your return, Dragonborn."

"Yes, yes, I am eager too." Ja'kal replied dismissively over his shoulder as he dragged Serana ever harder. She almost laughed at how rude he was, even unintentional, but her mind was weighed down by the darkness and she still felt grotesque wisps brushing over her skin, making her shudder in disgust. The moment they were outside, she yelped when he pulled her in a fierce hug. "Feel this. Feel every bit of this. Think of the pressure around your shoulders, the way it is pushing your arms against your ribs." He angled his head and repeatedly swiped his whiskers against her cheeks. "Feel this too. I do not know how it must feel against your skin, but just _feel_ it."

"Ja'kal, what are you-?"

"Your smell, it is one of fear but it is also one Ja'kal _knows._ He was there, once - trapped in a dark place. Break out of your _mind,_ feel everything that proves to you that you are no longer there. You are not. You are here, safe with Ja'kal." He squeezed harder when a strong gust brought with it a flurry of snow falling off the roof, and they both yelped when it crashed on them. Ja'kal groaned and shivered - even though he couldn't even feel the cold, and Serana laughed when he spat at the snow, full of loathing. "You are here on top of the most wretched place to live. Who looks at a mountain and thinks it would be good to live up here? _Why?_"

"Isolation," she helpfully supplied, knowing that logical answers were not at all what he wanted to hear. "Probably so that they wouldn't accidentally kill people with their power. That way they also get to dedicate to studying their craft in peace, without scrutiny or demands for that power to be used to serve whatever purpose those demanding it have. Something like the Thu'um is prone to corruption and people seeking to rule authoritatively could abuse it very easily. I've learned recently that one of the civil war leaders - Ulfric Stormcloak, I believe - abused the power of the Thu'um to win a duel against the High King of Skyrim."

Ja'kal pulled away to stare at her, a most unimpressed look on his snow-covered face. It was a great delight to see how much of it glued to his fur. "You took this opportunity to show off and take Ja'kal seriously in a not-serious manner."

How did that make sense? Guess it was that whole 'contradictory truth' khajiit thing again.

"Pretty much, yes," she cheekily confessed, if only to be amused by another expression. She smirked when he stared, deadpan, whiskers flaring occasionally. Then he plopped his chin on top of her head and held her tightly, kissing her hair before he lingered there and breathed warmth into her scalp. She closed her eyes to focus on _feeling_ every bit of this, to engrave it in her memory. She smiled when she had remembered another, reminding her how she had to _survive_ his hug.

Now his hug helped her survive - her sanity, anyways. It should be a staple to everybody's basic survival kit in these harsh times.

_"You taught this khajiit that fear can be conquered by surviving it... Not so scary anymore, yes? See? You have 'stepped in' and come close, and you are still alive."_

"What good is this power when it does nothing to help Serana?" Ja'kal mused ever so softly, sighing. "I wish somebody else had it so that I could focus on you."

Serana hummed, and finally returned his hug as she hid her face in his chest. "I know you're not thrilled about it, but I'm glad you do." Because if he hadn't been corrupted by vampirism, and complained _this_ much about having any sort of power at all, then there were fewer chances of him mulling on ways to abuse it; like father, who was hungry for more power for that very purpose. "And you don't need the power of the gods to help me, especially when you help me a lot - just like now." She looked up and rose on her toes to kiss the underside of his chin, smiling when it had immediately sparked a chain reaction, and an infectious grin swept his face.

"That is the power of _love,_" he boasted proudly, and she rolled her eyes as she hid her face in his chest again. He could be so cheesy... But maybe he was on to something.

"I guess so." It came in the quietest and most sheepish mumble; but if he could be cheesy, so could she. Maybe. She could try, anyways, no matter how foolish she felt. "You're like a single candle in a room, both defying and defining darkness." She tightened her hold on him and closed her eyes, smiling. "Thank you for being my _light._" A part of her immediately withdrew and felt self-conscious when his chest kicked against her in a sharp breath; and then she kicked herself ever harder for ever doubting Ja'kal's nature of affection when he leaned down, whispering in her ear with an unyielding resolve that shook the demons out of her mind.

"And like a candle, I will burn my body to keep your darkness away."


	4. A Different Kind of Dance

_**[SEQUEL TO KHAJIIT GOT YOUR TONGUE**__**]  
Chapter 4: A Different Kind of Dance**_

* * *

"Ja'kal, what are you doing?"

Serana swore this was the question she asked every day - dare say even the most-asked question of her entire life. She looked down and watched his hands as he tugged the lip of her tunic and corset to be higher up, uncomfortable with what he was doing. Sort of. The corset tightened over her breasts and her tunic wrinkled unflatteringly as it covered her collarbones.

"You wear gloves and a hood to shield your skin from the sun," Ja'kal murmured, his brow wrinkling with concentration as he tried to fix her clothes. "But you have this big hole on your chest. It makes no sense. So Ja'kal is fixing it."

"That..." She thought about it for a second, then looked down again, mumbling sheepishly. "That's... A good point..." She tried to fix his _fix_ by smoothing out the wrinkles and folds, but her clothes were tailored specifically that way. He groaned and she smirked when she tugged everything back down to fit the corset to her body the way it was meant to. "I can't breathe like that. When we reach Winterhold, I'll see if there's something else that appeals to me." She looked up in thought at that, ideas racing in her brain. "Actually... It would probably be a good idea for both of us to get rid of these clothes-"

"Ja'kal approves."

"Try again." Serana rolled her eyes, ignoring the part he undoubtedly _approved_ and continued. "As I was saying, we should get rid of these and fetch new clothes, so that we won't be recognized by the Dawnguard or father's acolytes." She watched him just as intensely as he watched her, and she crossed her arms when his whiskers flared. She smirked when the end of his tail flicked nervously.

"This is the part Ja'kal approves of, of course."

"Of course," she chuckled dryly. "Nice save. _Much_ better."

Ja'kal's ears perked and his chest puffed with pride. His whiskers flared in a fangful grin and he grabbed her hand, tugging her as he grabbed their makeshift traveling bag he made out of a potato sack. She laughed when his impatience showed itself much faster than usual the moment she hadn't walked at his exact pace, and his tail snaked around her waist for an extra pull.

"Hurry, hurry," he urged, "Ja'kal hears water and wants to dance with you."

That made Serana double back and arch her brow. "_Dance?_ Are you sure you've got the right person for that?"

"What? Of course." He slowed down as his tail drooped to her thigh, and he looked over his shoulder with worry. "Does Serana not like to dance?"

"Um... I mean, I have danced before." In formal fashion, which she suspected that didn't exist in Ja'kal's vocabulary. "But usually it was in the court - and with music."

Ja'kal grinned. "It will be the exact same thing then."

Yeah.

No.

Serana was fairly certain it would be nothing like what she had to do before. Once again she was carried away by this carefree cat's whims, wondering if there will ever be a time he'll pick up even a modicum of responsibility from the obligations that have been thrust on to him because of his power. She could relate to not _wanting_ that power, she could, but that didn't mean the desire not to have it meant she was absolved of the duty that came with it all. He whirled around, abandoned their traveling sack, and walked backwards as he insistently pulled on her hands, his tail wrapping around her waist again. He slid side to side, bopping with his head and rolling his shoulders as he did. There was absolutely _no_ rhythm to his movements.

"What are you doing?" Serana chuckled, thoroughly amused by his interpretation of-

"Dancing!" He slid again, his grin growing ever wider.

"Uh huh. And to what music?"

"The birds, and the ma'jota, and the wind brushing through the leaves." Well, that explained the lack of rhythm at least. "Try it with me. Come on. Dance, pretty please?"

"Ja'kal..." She sucked in the flesh of her cheek when she was hit with pleading eyes, and if she could actually see that far more clearly - swirling in the milky blue hues - then it was a safe bet to gauge just how badly he had wanted this. She sighed and swallowed her embarrassment as she tried to copy his movements, though her muscles held on to it's rigid technicalities from how she was taught to dance all 'proper' in court. She hadn't slid the way he did and stiffly stepped to the side, hoping it was enough to sate him.

Of _course_ it wasn't.

"Loosen up," Ja'kal let go of her hands and squeezed her shoulders, flexing his knees as he dipped smoothly in another slide. He applied pressure on her shoulders in an effort to make her copy him, but she was still tense. He had actually rolled his _eyes_ at her and let go, nimbly leaping back and finishing it off with an elegant somersault that betrayed the lack of grace his movements had a few seconds ago. "Let go of the expectations you hold of yourself. Come on, it cannot be that hard; it is just a different kind of dance than what you are used to. Do you think Ja'kal cares if you look silly?"

"Well..."

"Ja'kal is looking forward to it so that we both laugh." He deftly jumped up and caught a tree branch, then turned upside down and hung by his tail, swinging comically. "Just like how you were smiling when this one was being silly, yes? Serana is so serious all the time, she will get gray hairs _tonight,_ at this rate."

Serana crossed her arms, an amused smile tugging the corner of her mouth even when she tried not to. "You know vampires don't age, right?"

"Did you start aging before you turned, then?" Ja'kal pointed, but there was no way of telling exactly where he was pointing. "I see a gray hair and a wrinkle."

That was enough to make her heart skip a beat. "What? No you don't!" She looked around for any body of water, but there was none to be found. Didn't he say he heard water? Was this yet another one of those times where it may as well have been on the _other_ side of Skyrim? She narrowed her eyes when Ja'kal started laughing, rich and loud enough to fill this entire forest; she knelt to pick a handful of twigs to throw at him in revenge, but there was no stifling the smile that swept over her face, infected by the contagion that was his boisterous mirth. His swinging slowed and he wiggled his finger for her to come closer, to which she did just so that she could _push_ him, laughing when he yelped as he swung away.

It backfired when he crashed back into her, though his arms snapped around her before she fell. His heavy breaths echoed in her ear and she winced when claws protracted and sank into her thighs, wondering just how long they truly were if he still had something that couldn't be pared off. She patted his hands and tried to pry off a finger. "Ja'kal... _Claws._ They're still sharper than you think."

"Urada, Serana," he whimpered pitifully, releasing her as he swung idly. The two stared at each other upside down, and she smiled. It set off the curiosity in his eyes and his whiskers twitched as a reaction, smiling too. "Why are you smiling?"

"I don't know," she lilted playfully. "Why are you?"

"I do not know." He reached up and poked her cheek. "Because you are."

They stared again. She truly did not know why she was smiling, and the natural inquisitive part of her did not appreciate her shrugging it off. She framed his head, kissed his chin, and claimed his lips as she sought solace and the courage to say _thank you_ for just being him, however flawed and frustrating he could sometimes be. But so could she - and it was surprisingly _comforting_ to know that she needn't be perfect, especially when they became perfect when they were put together.

By the gods, this cheesiness overload was a bit much, even for her - and she didn't dare say any of it out loud. She hoped he felt it well enough as she pressed harder against his lips, her tongue dipping into the crevice of his mouth as her fangs teased his upper lip. He groaned, and soon enough the claws found themselves stretching and sinking into her thighs again.

"_Ja'kal,_" she warned as she tapped his hands, but she never stopped kissing him. It stirred the incorrigible desire lurking deep inside of her as she grew rougher and thrust her tongue deeper in his mouth, swallowing their groans as she ran it along the long spines of his tongue. Tingles flooded her mouth and somehow hardwired a path straight to an ache growing between her legs; it nearly forced her to eat her own words from yesterday when she had chastised Ja'kal for being _frisky_ with her at every chance he could get, and now here she was, instigating it all.

"I hope you can forgive me for doing this despite what I said yesterday," she blurted as she worked the buttons of his shirt, coaxing her fingers through the trimmed fur of his chest. He chuckled against her lips and stopped her from stroking him as he pressed and held her hands against his chest. She could feel every heartbeat, and grew squeamish for the coming _cheese_ when he craned his neck back to look at her.

"It is amusing whenever Serana asks for forgiveness." He nuzzled his cheek against hers and pecked a chaste and cheesy kiss on her nose. "Even when there is no need to ask for it in the first place. It is Ja'kal who must ask for it when he has not focused on loving you the way he should have all along." He dropped down from the tree and unsurprisingly landed on his feet, rising to take her hands and rest them on his chest again. He nuzzled his other cheek against hers and she chuckled at the strange sensation, and the even stranger - warm - feeling that bloomed inside of her when he placed a hand on her hip, gently swaying from side to side as he stayed glued to her. "Do you have ideas as to why Ja'kal loves you, Serana?"

"I... Don't really know, no."

Ja'kal's chuckles purred and rumbled lowly. He shook his head against her as he held her hand tighter, their sways growing with more momentum. "Ja'kal knows you do not know - for you always tell yourself you do not know, even when you do; but Ja'kal knows you are a _thinker, _yes? Surely you have ideas."

Serana sucked in the corner of her lip and nibbled on it, a wry quip tumbling out to hide the discomfort. "Are you asking me to compliment myself so you know what I like to hear?"

"That too," he admitted honestly and playfully, and it wrought a brief laugh from her. She fell quiet and her head landed on his chest, staring at their hands before her eyes slipped shut, dancing to the tune no one could hear but them. Warm breaths sank into her scalp when he burrowed his snout against her hair, lulling her with his relaxed rhythm. "You saw a blind khajiit, and you did not shun me as others always have; instead, you listened and talked to me. You put up with my questions and curiosities and mistakes. You were patient and _understood._ You painted pictures and made new traditions. You helped me conquer my fear, and you were not afraid to conquer your own." He sucked in a sharp breath, his voice dropping to be a mere shell of itself. "You were hurt, and still you were so brave as to trust this impatient one - again and again and again - with the trust that was broken in the first place."

With every confession, she grew ever more squeamish, struggling to figure out how to respond or where to even start. She had wanted to shout how the intimate act of his _turning _may have tampered with his emotions towards her, or at least amplified them. If this was all just an illusion, it fooled even her; she hadn't known where her own feelings began and where the tampering may have ended - if it had even tampered the giver just as much as the receiver. It wasn't a subject she was familiar with, having never actually turned anyone before.

"Serana is intelligent, and fierce, and brave, and captivating, and hum... Humor... Humorous - that is the right word, yes?"

"Are you sure you know what you're saying or are we about to have another misunderstanding like _erotic succubus,_ Ja'kal?"

"I am sure now," he grinned as he squished his mouth against her forehead, his warmth and the _cocoon _of safety it nested within her hadn't helped with that buzzing inside of her. "You are so serious, but that does not mean you have forgotten how to laugh and make light of life, even when shrouded in darkness. You are cute, and serush, and most definitely _zaji; _but all of those things are still not the most important reason as to why Ja'kal loves you."

"This gushing is kind of starting to get a bit much," she admitted; she wasn't at all prepared to hear _this_ much, and she had a bit of trouble believing some of it. The rest she'd gotten a head start on it at least, but things like _zaji _were most definitely still going to take a long time before she had ever considered herself that way, much less be comfortable in that aspect of herself.

It was like wearing a skin that didn't belong to her.

"This is why Ja'kal loves you," he breathed against her ear, gently nibbling on the tip of it. She hadn't expected it at all, and though she was mildly confused by what he meant, she was fixated on the scrape of his fangs along the shell of her ear. "It does not matter how many times Ja'kal says all these things - you are still humble and do not forget _yourself._ You are connected, but you are disconnected at the same time."

"...Is this supposed to not make sense, like the thjizzrini? Q'zi no vano thzina ualizz? Is my contradiction the reason why you love me - because I'm like the khajiit now?" She smirked, both sheepish and proud, when she goaded a laugh from him. He embraced her tightly and disrupted their rhythm until their entire bodies swayed from side to side in a sorry excuse of a 'dance', but she no longer cared. It wasn't like anyone was judging her - except and _only_ herself. She was more confident in the sincerity behind what Ja'kal thought of her than her own saboteur mind.

"That is yet one of many more reasons, Serana-ro."

"Ah... Now I understand. Is that why it's amusing when I ask for forgiveness?"

"No," Ja'kal chuckled, "I meant it when I say it is because there is truly no need for it. Yesterday was not something I will hold against you - but it is something I will hold against myself. I have a responsibility that I neglected, and I am lucky to have been reminded rather than lose you because of it."

"Responsibility? Never thought I'd ever hear that word come out of your mouth." Serana teased, and she drew her head away as she looked up at him with a wicked smirk. "Hold on, don't say anything else. I need to first figure out if I'm dreaming, and then I need to commit this to memory regardless of it being a dream or not."

It was Ja'kal's turn to roll his eyes, and it spurred her on. He smirked back though, and leaned down as he nibbled the tip of her ear until he elicited a shiver from her, echoing words she once said to him. "_Duly noted._" The laces of her corset were undone with practiced speed and he snuck his hand under her tunic, gently raking his claws down her spine until he drew a more aggressive shudder from her body. A wave of chills chased after the goosebumps that broke out on her skin and she arched into him, reminded of the ache growing between her legs.

"You didn't neglect anything," she barely managed to say without croaking pitifully, wrapping her arms around his shoulders in a meager attempt for support; she knew the strength would be sucked out of her legs soon enough, and her knee buckled on her when his claws burned a path down her back.

"Still so kind, thinking of Ja'kal's feelings," he nibbled his way down to her throat, his hands growing ever more rougher. "I do not want the illusion you had to paint in the castle, Serana. I want you _raw_ and untamed; the good and the bad, even if you are angry." He tore out the laces of her corset and wrestled it off of her, granting better access as he raked his claws up her stomach. If she hadn't held on to him, she'd have slumped into a puddle right then and there, and the fiery pain only served to stoke the flame inside of her.

Ja'kal took his hand out - much to the displeasure she didn't think she'd have - and took hers, curling her fingers against his chest as he claimed her mouth with such tenderness, it made her cry _outrage_ and want for something far more than this softness neither sincerely felt. She wanted it just as raw, and she raked her nails down hard enough to pull a hiss out from his lips. There was a slight glow glossing his eyes, a speck of amber buried in the depths. It flared and shone brighter every time her nails paved a new path on his skin.

"There," he nodded, encouraging her hands by pressing against them even harder. "I want you to make me _yours_ all over again, just like the night you turned me. Claim me." He stretched and exposed his neck to her, making her fangs itch as that powerful memory called out to the vestiges of the euphoria she vividly remembered that night. "I want you to loosen up_, _Serana. Let go."

She smirked as she rose on her toes, fangs scraping the spot she favored to sink into. "This was never about dancing, was it?" She may have not seen his smirk, but she _heard_ it.

"Of course it is. It is just a different kind of dance than what you are used to."

Serana laughed. "I don't know why I didn't see this coming."

* * *

_**Author's Note**_

_Sorry for taking so long on this update, and that it's a short one. I'm working twice the amount of shifts this month, but at least September is almost over! Hope you enjoyed this humble and slightly naughty dose of Ja'kal & Serana. Have a lovely day and cheers :)  
_

_**Translation**_

_Ma'jota - _insects

_Urada - _sorry

_Serush - _beautiful

_Zaji - _sexy

_Thjizzrini -_ foolish concepts

_ Q'zi no vano thzina ualizz -_ when I contradict myself, I am telling the truth


End file.
